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Monday, April 27, 2015

If Satan is Responsible, Why Take it Out on God

The question was posed the other day: "Why do people get mad at God? Wouldn't it make more sense to get mad at Satan, as he's responsible for all the bad stuff that happens?"

Well first, I have to admit I do not fully agree with the theology that Satan is responsible for all the bad stuff - but, this is a topic for another day. For the purposes of this post, we'll assume that yes, Satan is responsible.

So, if Satan is responsible, why do we take it out on God? Why do we get angry with God?

The answer is actually quite simple...

Expectations of God; Expectations of Satan

We expect Satan to cause problems. We expect him to send us temptations. We expect him to cause loved ones to get sick and die (again, remember, for the purposes of this post, we're blaming Satan for everything).

But God? Our loving Father? Our protector and comforter? The Great Physician? The Author of Peace? We expect God to protect us and our loved ones.

I've known children who were molested or raped by a family member, or close friend of their parents' - and often they blame their parents (or, the non-offending parent). The parent was supposed to protect the child. Even myself, when my dad first got married and my step-mom started abusing me - I blamed my dad. He was supposed to protect me.

Misplaced Anger

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that getting angry with God is necessarily a good thing. Nor am I saying that this anger isn't misplaced. I'm only saying that it is understandable. The One who is supposed to love us and protect us has failed to meet that expectation. Regardless of the reason (He has a plan; He's trying to help us grow from our suffering; etc), He still failed us. Who wouldn't be mad at that?

But, while this anger is understandable, we do still need to stop and recognize that perhaps God isn't the one we should be angry with. Perhaps it's just something we need to accept is no one's fault (i.e. someone dying from illness). Perhaps it's an abuser. Perhaps it's Satan. Perhaps it's our own selves.

No matter who it is, we need to forgive, and give that anger to God in a healthy way.